Description

Evolve: Hunter's Quest is a turn-based match-three strategy game and a companion game to the shooter Evolve. It is set in the same universe and uses many familiar elements, but the gameplay is entirely different. The player controls a team of four hunters battling different types of wildlife and large monsters. Most of the screen consists of a board filled largely with icons that refer to the four hunters. By swapping icons' positions to create a line of three identical items or more, horizontally or vertically, an action is executed for the hunter associated with the colour. Open spots are filled up with new icons dropping down from above and combos can formed for successive attacks. The game is turn-based and enemies have an attack counter, so speed is not an issue is most of the matches.

Each hunter has a certain amount of health. Creating matches also fills up an ability meter for the hunter associated with the colour, providing access to up to three tiers of abilities. The hunters are based on the same four classes of the original game with matching abilities such as offensive lightning strikes, defensive shields or a medgun that heals. Many abilities also affect the board, for instance to get rid of certain icons or to make a large amount explode. A single game location usually consists of three or more successive battles where health and ability meters are carried over. Next to the basic icons there is a 2x token that matches with any combination. It is formed by creating a match of four icons. By matching five icons a special class ability is activated, such as healing the entire team and removing all negative effects, cloaking the team for one turn, increasing damage for one turn or shielding the team to reduce damage for two turns. Other icons are bullets for team attacks. In later levels monster icons appear. These can be matched for an attack, but after a set amount a large monster appears for one turn with a negative influence on the characters or the board.

Defeated enemies often leave behind a crate that provides mastery points or different types of bones. Bones are collected to unlock different types of wildlife in the bestiary divided over four locations (acid, desert, forest and ice) for badges that can be used in the main Evolve game as well as additional mastery points. After a battle the collected bones are shown, mastery points are provided and characters receive experience to level up and improve abilities up to three levels and statistics (damage and health). Mastery points are used to purchase boosts during battles, such as healing, reviving a team member or enhancing abilities. Certain boosts (damage, energy, shield) can also be bought before starting a battle. Mastery points are provided in-game but can also be bought as in-app purchases. Other in-app purchases are mission-long boosts, consumables and various special items. The game consists of four locations with three areas each and multiple battles per area. Each location offers a new set of hunters, the same as those in the original game, and in the final location all hunters are available with custom teams. There are 100 missions in total with three difficulty levels for each.

Each battle uses a different type of gameplay modeled after the game modes in the original game. Hunt is the regular game mode to battle multiple rounds of wildlife. Monster is a battle against a single, large, powerful monster. If it is not killed in a certain amount of turns, it escapes and flees. In Nest egg tokens of a specific colour need to be matched to destroy monster eggs in a limited amount of turns. In Rescue civilian tokens need to be matched to get civilians to safety, with a priority for certain types of civilians. In the latter two game modes speed becomes a factor and the objective needs to be completed before time runs out.

This companion game can be used to earn badges for the main game, but it is also possible to watch saved replays from the game in the app. It also shows general statistics and the leaderboards of the main game. An account is required to play the game, with various options such as a Google+ account (Android), a Facebook account or a my2K account. The account is used to sync progress between the different platforms.